MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Did I hear that correctly?

Did I hear that correctly?


A fun thread about song lyrics that you may have misheard.

I'll start with a guy I knew a long time ago who used to be in a pool league.
He always wore a "Pool Shark" hat.

Whenever he heard The Police sing Every Breath You Take and heard the lyric
"My poor heart aches" he thought they were saying "I'm a pool hall ace" and would point
to his hat and get a shitty grin on his face. Still cracks me up.

What are you're favorite music lyrics that you've misheard ?

reply

The one that immediately comes to mind for me is Mother In Law by Herman's Hermits and the line I think is, " it'll take the devil to replace her. " 😆 It kind of makes sense, considering their reputation, but I'm still not sure.

reply

I wasn't familiar with the song so I listened to it.
This lyric would actually make sense considering the subject of the song.

reply

Exactly my point!

reply

My subconscious has been bugging me about this so I did some digging and sure enough, I made a mistake. I got this song confused with She's Gone by Hall & Oates where the actual lyric is, " oh, I'd pay the devil to replace her."

I'm surprised no one called me out on this, especially you dewey, since you claimed to have listened to it.

But in Mother In Law, there is an actual lyric that says, " Satan should be her name. "

In a weird sort of way, they still seem to complement each other considering I discovered the actual words of She's Gone in the immediate aftermath of my divorce when my ex became upset over my misinterpretation. Just goes to show, humor can be found in almost any situation. 😁

reply

When I listened to the song I couldn't quite figure out which line you misheard since they all seemed fairly clear.
As you can see from this post people hear the damnedest things. So I didn't think too much of it.

You're right though, they do compliment each other in a weird way.

Humor can indeed be found in almost any situation.
Sometimes it's hard to see it when at a particular moment but in hindsight it's usually there.

reply

The favourite is Metallica's great "Sand Patrol". What, you've never heard of that one? Neithar have most people, because it's actually "Sad But True".

Also, Geddy Lee sings Tom Soy! He does, and I won't hear it otherwise.

In the Pixies "Caribou" Francis Black totally screams "RED PANTS. RED PA-A-NTS." at us. I'm sure it's supposed to be Repent, but, whatever.

Will post more, when I remember them.

EDIT: Also, thanks for making this one :D

reply

Sand Patrol sounds like a 60's spy show. "if you mess with us you pay the toll, we are Sand Patrol"

I wonder if there's anybody named Tom Soy who to this day thinks the song is about him. Probably not.

When I was younger -the song Rapture by Blondie goes

"And it's finger popping
Twenty-four hour shopping in Rapture"
I heard
"And it's finger f**k me
then forever shaft me Rapture."

Guess where my mind was.

reply

Oh, Mr. Godewey...you a bad boy! "Oh What A Night In December Of '63" After the week-end you had when you disappeared (actually you knew where you were) it's no wonder why you misinterpreted "Rapture". Now we got 'em, don't we? I just had to open that door, didn't I? Questions will now be taken under advisement.😱😬🤐

reply

Some how I knew you'd find your way here.
I did know where I was. At least some of the time.
This song would have been a few years before that event.
Apparently Blondie was getting me primed for that weekend. 😉
I really don't think that door has ever been shut.
I can always count on you to put a smile on my face.

reply

LOL

This is hilarious!

reply

It was a long time before I found out the real lyrics.
I just hope I never sang it in public.

BTW Have you ever heard Blinded By the Light?

reply

Yes, I have. And I hear the same thing everyone else hears!

reply

I'm really beginning to suspect there's something Freudian about many of these misinterpretations. 😉😆

reply

After reading some of these I couldn't agree more.

reply

The Pixies got me thinking and listening. This may be a fair assessment.

Gigantic

real-Hey Paul, hey Paul, hey Paul
heard-hey bar, hey bar, hey bar

Debaser

real- I am un chien Andalusia.
heard- I am moonshine and abuse ya

Not convinced on red pants.

reply

I'm not convinced on "hey bar", but I'm not surprised.

The Debaser bit was just gibberish until I looked up the lyrics.

Now, "Oh my golly!" is an odd one, because I hear it in Bulgarian lol.

Real: Oh my golly! Oh my golly!
Heard: Oh magare! Oh magare! /which means donkey, so "oh donkey, oh donkey"/

Real: Rosa, oh, oh, ooh Rosa
Heard: Opa, oh, oh, ooh, opa /Opa we use as your Oops basically/

Soo, yeah...

reply

"but I'm not surprised."
Ha-lare-ee-us.

I bet you were happy when The Pixies started singing in Bulgarian.
Even though it was about a donkey.
Actually has good ring to it. Oh donkey, oh donkey , oops, oh donkey.

reply

It tickles me everytime I listen to that song. I actually thought it was something in Spanish, since the song starts in Spanish. But nope, pure English.

reply

My sister used to think Prince's I Would Die For You was...Abba Dabba Doo.

reply

This made me literally laugh out loud :D

reply

Me too, I actually got a huge, real laugh from that!

reply

This is too good.

reply

😊 She really did. The fam still makes fun of her for it.

reply

How could they not. This is classic.

reply

Did she think Fred Flintstone was singing it?

reply

We did watch The Flintstones as kids, so there may have been a childlike correlation made there by her. :)

reply

[deleted]

I too always heard that as "Me ears are alight"!!!

reply

It would make total sense that Sergeant Baker had a ballpoint in his hand.
He had to write all those tickets, right?

reply

"Shot through the heart"...i missheard "shot to the heart" - bon jovi

reply

I originally thought that was the lyric too.

reply

I actually have a couple. These are all old, so now you know how old I am.

1) The Credence Clearwater song "Bad Moon Rising", the line "There's a bad moon on the rise", My sister thought it said "There's a bathroom on the right".

2) The Eagles song "Take it to the limit", the line "Put me on the highway", my friend thought it said "Pu--y on the highway" (another name for a cat).

3) The Rascals song "grazing in the grass", the line "grazing in the grass is a gas", my sister-in-law thought it was "chicken in a basket's a gas".

I'm sure I've heard a few hundred more, just can't remember any right now.

Oh, I had to edit this to add: the whole song, Pearl Jam, Yellow Ledbetter. If you never heard the "Misheard Lyrics" version, you'll laugh for 5 minutes

reply

Oh, yes, Yellow Ledbetter and that Misheard Lyrics version! The whole thing is hilarious. "Make me fries" lol

reply

Hahah! Never heard the misheard lyrics version before. That was hilarious!

reply

"The Credence Clearwater song "Bad Moon Rising", the line "There's a bad moon on the rise", My sister thought it said "There's a bathroom on the right"."

Hey, that's my ringtone on my phone! You mean they aren't singing "There's a bathroom on the right"? 😱😨😏:)

reply

Ha, ha! That's one of the more well-known "mistakes." I know I've made a lot of lyrical errors, but I can't remember any of them at the moment. I believe it's why I like a lot of songs from back in the 1940s and 50s because I could understand what was being sung.

reply

I love that CCR is giving people directions to the bathroom.

These are great.
I will have to listen to that Yellow Ledbetter version.

reply

Britney Spears "Toxic."

The bit in the chorus that says "You're toxic; I'm slipping under..." I actually thought was "Your toxic tongue slipping under" ----!!!

reply

OK, spill it Prelude. Slipping under what ? :P

reply

Well that was it -- it just ended with "under"! To be honest I didn't want to think about what "under" she meant, lol!

reply

Not to mention it was Britney Spears. It could have been anything.
This is hysterical.

reply

HAhahahahah!! Indeed! In particular, Britney during her equivalent of Xtina's "dirrrrty" phase!

reply

One song I heard clearly but totally misunderstood was 'Centerfield' by Creedence Clearwater revival.

He keeps singing "put me in Coach". I thought he actually meant "put me in coach" on an airplane as opposed to first class because he was heading out to a ball game! duh!

I finally realized the meaning of the lyrics (years ago) while watching my soap opera one afternoon. Two characters, guys who were good friends, founds some bats and balls and mitts on a baseball diamond. They decided to have some fun and play. This song played in the background.

I thought "Oh so THAT's what the song means!"

reply

I used to think Gwen Stefani was saying "I ain't no Holly Baxter".

(and I always wondered who Holly Baxter was and why it was so bad to be her)

reply

LOL!

reply

And if you want to know the truth Prelude, "Holly Baxter" actually makes more sense to me than "Holler-Back Girl" (which probably shows how much I'm out of the loop these days).

So if a girl "hollers back", is that a bad thing? What if you're trying to get her attention in the first place? Wouldn't you WANT her to holler back?

The only instance that I can think of in which you WOULDN'T want someone to "holler back" is when you're having an argument, and you want to have the last word...

'Hey, she never "hollered back". I guess that she finally realized that I was right.'

Prelude, you can holler at me all you want, but just to make myself perfectly clear, "I ain't no holler-back girl", so please don't take it the wrong way if I don't respond.

reply

But what happens if I'm Holly Baxter? ;D

reply

Okay, now you're really confusing the hell out of me. I have absolutely no idea.

*thinks about it for a good-long while*

I guess that I just never thought that I'd ever encounter an actual "Holly Baxter"!

reply

Nah I'm just kidding! Couldn't resist; it's pretty cool when a misheard lyric is a plausible name -- I'll bet there is a Holly Baxter out there somewhere, lol!

That reminds of the song "867-5309/Jenny" by Tommy Tutone. Apparently when that song was in the charts, everyone was calling that number and it really was several people's number in different states!

reply

you must not be a baseball fan

reply

LOL, you got that right! However one time when visiting friends, they took me to a professional game. It was fun. (I had no idea what was going on though!)

My interpretation of "coach" had to do a lot with the fact that I was a flight attendant and the word COACH was big in my vocabulary.

My sister was great at goofing up song lyrics to TV shows. When we were kids we used to watch Petticoat Junction. One line was , "forget about your cares, it's time to relax at the junction."

She insisted that the line was, "forget a magic care..." I used to argue with her. "What the heck is a magic care?"

reply

This makes me laugh. I would have never thought of this.

reply

"Put me in Coach" --- LMAO!! Seriously that is hilarious! When I read that I thought you meant an airplane class too!

reply